Tuesday, January 7, 2014

I've been meaning to post these cupcakes I made for Caitlin's 4th birthday back in October. Disney Princesses are still a big thing in our house. We met almost all of the princesses at Disney World back in March and this year for her birthday, we got a group together and went to Disney on Ice and saw most of them there again! Before the show, we went out for pizza and had these for dessert. The girls loved them!

I saw them on Pinterest and like most other projects I tend to love and choose, they do take a bit of time. But, the technique is easy enough for anyone and look how cute they are! First, I started out by finding images of the princesses. You can do the same through Google. Then, I sized each princess proportionately to fit on top of the cupcakes and printed them on cardstock. They ended up being about 3 inches high and 1.5-2 inches wide depending on the princess.

I made the toppers about a week in advance. I did 2 dozen cupcakes and the finished all of the cutting while catching up on DVR. I taped the topper to a flat toothpick and kept them in a Ziploc bag until it was time to bake and decorate.

1 piping bag to use as a holder + 1 piping bag for each color (explained below)

Food coloring

Princess pictures

flat toothpicks or lollipop sticks

Directions:

Bake the cupcakes according to the directions and let cool. Use coordinating cupcake liners if you want to do that.

Once the cupcakes are cooled, make the buttercream. Now let's decorate! I tried to make the decorating as easy as possible without having to wash the tip in between each color and without having 8 different bowls of color. Here's how I did it:

Start by putting the petal tip in a piping bag with a coupler. This is your holding bag. Now, get a second piping bag and cut the tip off. This will be the bag you load with the first color. Every time you switch to a new color, you'll get a new piping bag, fill it with the new color, cut the tip out, and slip it inside the holding bag. Then, just squeeze a bit until the old color comes out and the new color is solid.

Scoop some buttercream into a dish. I made 3 cupcakes of each of the 8 princesses, so scoop enough to finish all of the cupcakes for one princess, plus some extra. It's better to have too much than not enough. And it won't go to waste (you'll see!).

Starting with the lightest color (yellow for Snow White's dress) tint the buttercream and mix until the color is even. Load your (second) piping bag with the yellow, slide it into the holding bag and practice the petals a few times on a plate or piece of parchment. You can scrape your practice petals back into the bowl to be used when you're done. Pipe the first layer of petals, the bottom layer of the dress around the outside of the top of the cupcake. Then, do a second layer, slightly smaller on top of the first. Continue on like this, adding a scoop of white buttercream to the same bowl and slightly changing the color as your go. Like this:

1 - Snow White - tinted with Wilton Lemon. (described above)
2 - Belle - add a touch of Sunflower or Orange
3 - Ariel - add a tiny bit of Sky Blue
4 - Jasmine (do your daughters call her Jazz Man like mine does?) - add a bit more Sky Blue
5 - Merida- add quite a bit more Sky Blue
6 - Aurora - Wash the bowl or get a new bowl :( Tint with Pink.
7 - Rapunzel - Buy Violet! I thought I had some, but didn't and it was already around midnight, so I had to figure something out. After getting every shade of gray from trying to add red/blue, I ended up using quite a bit of liquid purple I found (McCormick) and it came out fine.
8 - Cinderella - new bowl, cornflower blue with a touch of Sky Blue.

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comments:

I said it before, but I love these and so will my little to be 4 year old! Thank you for doing the step by step with the colors, because I would have made a bunch of separate batches otherwise! Now, I just need a picture of Tiana and she'll be the happiest kid ever!

These are great!! My daughter has requested a princess theme for her 4th birthday as well :) Might scale down the number of princesses (she mostly likes Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel and Ariel) but the idea is awesome. Thanks for the info on the colors too!

love the cupcakes! I plan on doing some for a friend next month. You said in the blog you could help save time on images ??...how so? do you have the images you used saved? that would be awesome! thanks

Hi Melissa, Your cupcakes are gorgeous!! I've been frantically searching the web for images and/or these cupcake toppers. I have less than a week to get tis done. I sent you an email. can your please send me a copy of your images? Thank you very much!!! here is my email again just in case you didn't get my email. de35769@aol.com

Hey Melissa, I thought I would send you an update... my cupcakes are complete and they look very pretty. For Merida instead of adding tons of sky bit of royal blue and it worked out great. This color worked nice for Elsa too... but you could add some plain icing to lighten it. I then took just a teaspoon of this blue and added enough white icing to pipe Cinderella's skirts and the color seemed to work out. For Tianna I used Ariel color as it was a light green and for Mulan I used the same coloring as Snow Whites.

How can I get those images for the princess's, I will be making some cupcakes for this Saturday, and they want them princess theme, I have been looking around, and I cannot find those pictures. If you can share them that would be awesome. Thanks ricardo_navarro_07@yahoo.com

My son would LOVE these (yep my son haha). We are taking him to Disney on ice in June for his birthday too :) I might give these a go if you don't mind sharing the images vam.travels@gmail.comThank you, you did a wonderful job. Now off to explore the rest of your blog :)

Hi, U make it look so easy ..lol They are just wot Iam looking for- A set of 17 year old twins are still into princesses and they would love these - Please can you send me the images as their theme is Disney Princesses .

I am making these cupcakes for my honorary granddaughter's 3rd birthday since the theme is Disney Princesses! Would you be so kind as to e-mail me images? My e-mail address is rjrobey@frontiernet.net. Thank you so much!

Hi. Well, it looks like I am not the only one in this boat for asking for images. I would love the help out. Super cute idea, and the make ahead them assemble is going to be SO great. I appreciate all your work! If it is possible, could you send images to rlottis@yahoo.com

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I LOVE what you did with these cupcakes! They're adorable. I plan on making them for my daughter's 3rd birthday in September. May I please have a copy of the images as well? It would save me tons of time. Thank you so much! My email is nicoles1984 at gmail dot com. :)

Hi! I love your cupcakes!! So cute!! I am having a princess play date for my 3 year old and wanted to make these. Could you please send me the template for the cake toppers? I also would love the Frozen ones. She is going to be dressed up as Elsa. My email is vanbee79@gmail.com. Thank you so much!!

Wow! Well Done! I would REALLY appreciate your images as well! I have twin 3 year old girls with a mild to moderate obsession with Disney princesses! Thank you in advance for the inspiration! carsonjaclyn@live.ca

Hi there, these are AMAZING. I am doing my daughters 3rd birthday in all the Disney characters including Frozen. Would you be able to send me the images you used? I have searched the internet but only find ones that seem to charge for them.I appreciate your instructions. Thanks for posting. You are very talented. renard51@mymts.net

Hi, I love these adorable cupcakes and would love to make them for my daughters birthday party next week. Could you please email me all of the princesses you used including Anna & Elsa? (Teriweidner87@yahoo.com) Thank you!

I love these cupcakes and I think it is awesome that you even gave us the colors to use for each princess. Could you send me the images to bye915@optonline.net? I would love to make these for a Disney girl scout party my troop is throwing. Thank you!

Hi There, I LOVE these cupcakes and would like to attempt to make them for my daughter's 4th birthday. Would you mind sending me the images for the princess cutouts? zrammo@hotmail.com. Thanks in advance!

These cupcakes are adorable! Can you email the images to me for Anna, Elsa, Belle, Cinderella, Ariel, Aurora, Rapunzel, Snow white, Jasmine and Tiana? My email is maganl@yahoo.com Thank you so much! This would save so much time! Much appreciated!

Hi Melissa,I plan on making these cupcakes for my daughter's bday. Thank you for your tips. I am hoping you could send me the princess cutouts, haleylynnlee@gmail.com. I am new to designing cupcakes so I need all the help I can get..lol. Thank you for sharing.

Hi there,I would also love to have a copy of the princesses to do an upcoming party for May. I will message the about email. Thank you in advance for sharing these. My email is jennbabe_2000@hotmail.comKristina

Hi. I'm a little late to the party, but these are fantastic. My daughter would be ecstatic if I could make these for her 3rd birthday. Would you happen to still have them available?! alissa201@hotmail.com Thank you so much!